In the gaming machine industry, there is a continuing need for gaming machine manufacturers to produce new types of games, or enhancements to existing games, which will attract frequent play by enhancing the entertainment value and excitement associated with the game.
Slot machines are examples of gaming machines which have entertained users for many decades. Slot machines display symbols from sets of reels that spin and stop at random positions. A portion of the symbols on each set of reels are displayed to a user. The user is awarded a payout based on a winning combination of symbols appearing on a payline defined across the sets of reels. Known slot machines may award payouts, credits and bonuses for combinations of scatter symbols, wild symbols, paylines, and other variants.
Slot machines may be stand alone kiosk-type devices or networked kiosks that enable a jackpot according to some pre-defined criteria. Slot machines may also be electronic devices, including general purpose computers, programmed with a slot machine application. Gaming machines, including slot machines and various electronic devices can be networked with numerous devices enabling substantial jackpots. Electronic devices that function as slot machines may also include hand-held devices such as notepad computers or smart phones.
There is a constant need to provide users with new variants of gaming machines to attract users and keep them entertained. Manufacturers have varied slot machines to increase the number and variety of winning combinations, i.e. paylines. A payline may consist of any number or configurations of positions of gaming symbols. For example, a payline in a set of reels may consist of a horizontal line of gaming symbols along the reels, or a diagonal line of gaming symbols along the reels, or a line overlapping several rows along the reels. It is well known to provide slot machines with multiple paylines.
Providing more variety and opportunities holds the user's interest for a longer time and also enables the manufacturer to have a wider range of payouts for the winning combinations. Unfortunately, increasing the complexity of the game may require more computing resources to determine the paylines, or the machine may run slower than optimal. Also increasing the complexity of the game risks that a user may not readily follow how wins result, which diminishes the user interactivity and enjoyment.
Some gaming machines have become rather complex in comparison to the conventional machines of the pas having one set of three reels. Currently, many slot machines have a display with one set of five reels with three gaming symbols visible on each reel. This results in a visible set of gaming symbols in a three by five matrix configuration. Many of five reel slot machines have nine paylines, although twelve, fifteen, twenty and twenty-five or more paylines are becoming common.
Slot machines may utilize reel sets having more than five reels and more than three visible gaming symbols on each reel, such as a ten reel configuration with ten visible gaming symbols on each reel. This creates a 10×10 matrix of symbols i.e ten rows and ten columns. Such a slot machine may have an enormous number of potential paylines with just one set of reels.
With the increased complexity of the number and the positioning of the paylines on a singular set of reels, it becomes increasingly unwieldy for gaming software to evaluate a winning combination or combinations of gaming symbols. The calculations required take time, and even advanced computing capacity has limits. At some point, adding complexity may not increase user enjoyment. Multiple winning combinations, such as hundreds of paylines, may also become too complex for the typical user. For example, a user receiving a payout after a given spin of the reels may find it difficult to determine how, where or what just happened.
Current gaming machines also provide secondary or bonus games in addition to primary games. These bonus games are generally different from the primary game. The bonus games are typically played separately from the primary game. For instance, secondary or bonus games may be evaluated with a different set of predetermined combinations of the gaming symbols and different paylines. Bonus games may also include completely different games.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,594,851 to Falconer describes multiple sets of reels for slot machine play. The sets of reels are either stacked in a vertical orientation, or aligned in a horizontal orientation. The sets of reels are identical and rotate, or appear to rotate, to random orientations. Paylines are defined on each reel and also between reels depending on game play rules. This enables a variety of betting opportunities as compared to standard play slot machines having a single reel.
There is also a game on the market named Gazellions™ and marketed by Aristocrat Technologies, Inc. having multiple slot machine reels arranged in a grid format having a total of four reel sets arranged in a 2×2 grid. The grid has a small space between reel sets. This arrangement makes sense to optimize space consumed by the reel sets, and also increases the variety of betting opportunities because particular reels can be selected for improved payouts, whereas prior game versions rely on selecting particular paylines for improved payouts.
The gaming industry is competitive and ever-evolving. Although many games continue to entertain gaming enthusiasts, there is still an unmet need for enhanced games and game control.